The book includes tidbits of advice, like Warren Beatty's supposed suggestion to include a small part for a pretty young actress in every motion picture and to schedule auditions for that part late in the day. Indeed, Toback's films include a troupe of pretty young women, from unknowns to recognized actresses like Nastassja Kinski ("Exposed," 1983), Heather Graham ("Two Girls and a Guy," 1997), Claudia Schiffer ("Black and White," 1999) and Sarah Michelle Gellar, who stars in "Harvard Man."

In Toback's new film, sex, gambling, madness and drugs converge in a story loosely based on his college days at Harvard (class of 1966). Adrian Grenier stars as Alan Jensen, a philosophy student and the star of Harvard's basketball team, lured by his girlfriend and Mafia princess Cindy Bandolini (Gellar) to fix the team's game against Yale. But before the big game Alan drops LSD and winds up tripping for eight days. Soon the FBI and the Mafia are after him and his solution is to seek refuge in the arms of his sexy, bisexual philosophy teacher.

Toback sees "Harvard Man" as a complete fulfillment of his vision. "It is the first movie that really makes madness felt," says Toback. "You get the sense of the hallucinatory beauty of it," he adds, referring to the digital-effects-laden scene of Alan's trip. "It's both the ecstasy and excruciating pain of death." It includes what he describes as his favorite hallucination: seeing a nude woman walk out of a Gauguin painting.

We've almost made it to the west side of Central Park, a place Toback says he visits every day. His pace is surprisingly quick; he swerves from path to path knowingly. Near a reservoir he points left to a minicanyon of rocks and twisted trees where the opening scene of "Black and White" was filmed. But the scene is memorable more for its sex than the landscape. It opens to the beat of the Stylistics' '70s hit "Daddy's Little Girl," and the camera pans to a ménage à trois featuring two young girls and a black gangster pressed up against a tree while another black man looks on. Though the copulating trio is mostly clothed, it is incredibly suggestive, even after the three cuts necessary to get an R rating from the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA).

Sex has always been one of Toback's favorite subjects, especially when it's raw and unadulterated. He favors direct, explicit sexual depiction over watered-down anesthetized scenes because, he says, sexual obsession and sexual duplicity are ignored in American movies today. The director doesn't want to make NC-17 movies (many theater chains won't show them and many newspapers won't advertise them). He knows that an R rating is more marketable, but insists there's a purpose behind his explicit material.

"The whole idea of a sex scene," Toback told Charlie Rose in a 1998 TV interview, "is that it be a scene in which characters reveal themselves by the specifics of their behavior. If it's worth making a movie about these characters, it's worth understanding their sexual nature."

But the MPAA hasn't seen his reasoning, and his movies are notorious for necessitating multiple submissions to the MPAA appeals board. The first film Toback wrote and directed, "Fingers" (1978), starred Harvey Keitel as a would-be concert pianist who is also a debt collector for the Mob. It was edited 13 times before the MPAA reclassified it from an X rating to an R. The release of "Two Girls and a Guy" was delayed because of an eight-minute scene between Robert Downey Jr. and Heather Graham. Though both actors are clothed, the scene was edited and reedited almost 10 times before the association removed the NC-17 rating.

According to the MPAA, ratings are assigned based on what parents would consider an appropriate rating. Its ratings board, an anonymous group of Los Angeles-area parents, takes into account how the elements of theme, violence, language, nudity, sensuality and drug abuse are dealt with on-screen. MPAA policy is that a rating can only be based on what is seen, not what may be implied, suggested, imagined or thought.

As a result, Toback's films display carefully edited sex scenes that remain shocking and remarkably effective. Roger Ebert wrote in a review of "Exposed" (1983) that a scene in which Rudolf Nureyev seduces Nastassja Kinski with a violin bow made him "realize how many barriers sometimes exist between a performance and an audience. Here there are none."

On a cold night last November, Toback and I agree to meet for dinner at an Upper East Side sushi bar. He calls twice to say he'll be late. When he finally arrives, the owner is locking the front door. After apologizing, Toback explains he has been finagling the financing for "Harvard Man" and he hasn't eaten all day. He's casually dressed in a basketball warm-up suit, black "Harvard Man" hat and gold chain. He seems wound up. There are beads of sweat on his forehead and he can't stand still. We practically run to a bistro a block away, which he decides against on the off chance we might run into someone he doesn't want to see.

He decides on Elaine's restaurant, a short cab ride away, when a good-looking young black man hops out of a Honda with shiny hubcaps parked at the curb. It's Oli "Power" Grant of the Wu-Tang Clan, who was in "Black and White." Early in the movie Power has a voice-over that captures the questions of identity the film poses. He asks, "Can you change who you are? Do you love the other more than you love yourself? Do you wish you were another way? If you're black can you bleach? If you're white can you dye?"

Power bounds over, leaving the car pumping with bass, and he and Toback shake hands, patting each other on the back. "What's been goin' on, man?" Power asks, rubbing his chin. "I've been trying to call you, but I can't find your number. I got something I want you to check out."

Toback rattles off the number he gave the girl in the park, and the hip-hop mogul punches it into his cellphone memory. There's a cab down the street; Toback hails it, saying he's late for dinner. The two shake hands, snapping their fingers together at the end, and agree to talk in the next couple of days.

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